Hemangioma, Our Baby Has One on Her Chest....

To be perfectly honest, I would do some research and call the department at Children's Memorial Hospital. My baby had one on her head but it was a superficial one that did not require surgery. Even thought they may not actually DO anything about it until she's older, it's always good to have someone check the progress and come up with a plan. I definitely would not wait until she's 9 months to see someone. Those can grow really rapidly... Just google Children's Memorial Chicago Hemangioma. If I remember correctly, they have a team there that specializes in them.

Hope that helps!

BTDT DR Wagner is GREAT at Children’s we saw her in Westchester with both of my children. My daughter was born with 2 one between her ear and on her neck and the other on the back of her neck. The back of the neck one did not rise the other did we started her out at just a few months old getting steroid treatments (shots into her neck/ear area) as the Doc said it wasn't curing it it's more like mowing the lawn keeping it down from swelling and stretching so much. We had to continue to do those until she was 2 then we were told we no longer needed them. Apparently it managed to stay down on its own for a few months the doc said she was one of very few who after this size Hema would no longer need anything additional. The mark was still there for a while but not growing any larger with time it started to fade and now at 3.5 you can barely tell it's there.
Since my daughter was born we have 2 more girls in the family (my nieces) both of them have it one on a leg and the other on a back no treatment is needed for them at all.
Just a fair warning DO NOT WATCH THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL if you want answers believe me if you catch one of their specials it’s the worst case scenario it’s not the typical ones that you watch. It will make you insane and worry more so just stay away especially when your friends call you at 1am and tell you to turn it on…ughhh I went through about 6 months thinking my daughters face would be swallowed by hers it was bad…but as moms you know we over think and over worry……

Good luck
Jules

I'd second Children's Memorial Hospital. We're "regulars" at the satellite location in Westchester for our daughter's port-wine stain. Chicago has two of the best pediatric dermatologists in the country (that I know of), Dr. Anne Wagner and Dr. Gerome Gardner. Dr. Gardner developed the pulse-dye laser treatment for vascular birthmarks, and Dr. Wagner studied under him. Get a meeting with both of them and see who suits your personality better. Dr. Wagner has gone to-bat for us with our insurance company several times, as they sometimes 'balk' at what is often considered cosmetic surgery.

Our daughter had a small (size of a dime) hemangioma on her chest, and it's almost gone (at age 4.5), but has been through about 12 rounds of laser surgery for a prominent port-wine-stain on her face.

Nine-months 'til treatment isn't out-of-line; we had to wait until six months for the first laser surgery.

M.,
Our daughter, Meg, was born with one of these 'strawberries' on her forearm and it is about an inch in diameter. In the begining months it did seem to grow upward and get more red, but didn't really change in diameter. We took her to a skin doctor to see what we could do to remove it, and she assured me that it would just go down over time, become less red and full of blood, and eventually just disappear. She said that it was just an abnormal collection of blood vessels and that if she tried to do surgery at 6 months or so it would just be a bloody mess with a scar for life. She suggested that if I really wanted to do something about it, we could wrap the arm in an ace bandage to see if it would cause it to go down. Well, we tried that for like 2 weeks, but the area just got irritated and formed a scab. Then one day the scab got scraped and it started shooting out blood (after all this is a collection of blood vessels, right!) THAT was scary, but with pressure, the bleeding stopped. After that we just have left the dang thing alone. Now our Meg has just turned 4 and her hemangioma is only slightly a bump on her arm and it is almost the same skin color as the rest of her, just a little more pink.
So, I guess my advice is this - get a second opinion if it will ease your mind. I think the dermatologist was a good choice to visit (instead of a like another pediatrician) since this is their specialty. My other advice is that over time, you won't even notice that she's got a strawberry - my daughter is now used to telling other curios kids that she has a birthmark, but it will be gone in a few years.
Please feel free to contact me if you want the dermatologists contact information or have any questions. Good luck!! ~ K.

My daughter has one on her forehead that she has just recently discovered and thinks is an owie! Our Dr said he wouldn't recommend doing anything to it other than letting it decrease over time as the only thing they would do is cauterize not sure if I spelled that right?) but he said that would just be tramatic for her. He just said if she picked at it to reinforce that it is a negative behavior and eventually like anything else she would stop messing with it. If she manages to cause it to bleed he said to just put direct pressure on it. Our daycare provider used vaseline to stop the bleeding and she said it works great. Hopefully she will just leave it alone soon but in the mean time I hate it!

I too am a mother of a little one with 4 hemangiomas. They are all strawberry ones but the one on his chest is the biggest, in the same spot as your little one's. I am doing some research and I see that there are options. The first is just letting nature take it's course and letting it grow out. The next involves treatments that they inject into the hemangioma to help to reduce it. If it is flat, it can be removed with a dye laser. As I monitor my son nearing his 6 month mark, I am watching to make sure they have stopped growing and start reducing in size. I hope this helps you and now I just like you can breath a sigh of relief knowing we are not alone.